cousins @ the wedding

The last few weeks have shown me just how big, and wonderful!, our family is! And we have not even been with everyone!!! But it sure has been a busy and fun time!

ALL of the girl cousins with Baby Shaylee

Isabella and Lisi with Chloe

Gant and Isabella

oh, ya, and this happened...

nothin' like a purple goose egg on the middle of my sweet girl's forehead~ but as you can see, it does not seem to phase her....

Cousins @ Tablerock Lake

G-5 got his vacation started with a shopping cart full of fireworks just over the Missouri border!

Isabella on the top of the Raridon's dock slide

this is my favorite lake picture~
Marlee, Lisi, Isabella and G-5 on the tube!!!

sweet Lisi

taking a 'swim break' off the back of the boat
Isabella, G-5, Mark, Lisi and Marlee
After a whirlwind of activity here in Des Moines, we packed up 2 Suburbans, a pickup with a trailer, and trailered a boat, too, and headed south to Tablerock Lake. Mark's family has a house on the lake there. I have been going to that house myself since about 1984~ I learned how to waterski there! And I love it that our cute girls will be making memories there as well.

Cousins and The Iowa State Fair

Mark's sister, Melissa, and her family came to visit from Florida. We have not spent enough time with her cute kids, Glenn (aka, G-5) and Marlee, and we set out to make up for lost time at the Iowa State Fair!
G-5 and Marlee are both 'equines', and I loved razzing G-5 that this horse was his new mount, Magic. I don't know if he knew to chuckle, or be insulted, as he and his (real) horse, Magic, are a great team.

Lisi and "Auntie Ah" (Melissa) on the carousel together

sweet sisters

Glenn IV, Mark, G-5, Isabella and Lisi entering the MidWay

Marlee with her MidWay prize...won all by herself!

...and everything on a stick

THE LAST SUPPER...IN BUTTER

This post is mostly for my (favorite cousin) Heather, who lives in Los Angeles, but longs to visit the Iowa State Fair, and still regrets missing the years of Butter Elvis and The Butter Last Supper.
I promised her that I would get pix of all of the food that we "ate on a stick"....
and can you believe that we only touched the surface of what was available????
MMM, mmm, good!

Isabella began the festivities with a chocolate covered banana on a stick (the pix of Lisi eating it were not fit to print on a family friendly website...if you know what a mean...
And even though cotton candy is not on a stick, it is definitely 'fair food'!

Isabella took this pix of me eating a pork chop on a stick, and it was DELICIOUS!!!
G-5 went for the corn dog on a stick, topped with mustard

deep fried zucchini!

corn dogs!

By this point in the night, Marlee, and everyone else, thought my pictures of all of our food was just plain silly. Oh, but this was chicken nugget on a stick!

My Dad Is "King of the Midway"!!!

and then he went back and won one for Lisi, too!

cousins and horseback riding

This has been a BUSY past few weeks! And there is no way that I can do all of this fun justice...but I will try! Earlier this month, my mom's St Louis family came up for their annual 10 day summer vacation to Lake Panorama. I think their 11 year old son, Will, had the quote of the week: "Auntie Di (my Mom), if you get tired of us, you can go back to West Des Moines."
How is that for subtle???
But my cutie girls look forward to this every summer...10 days of cousins, swimming, and this year, horse back riding!!

Isabella running with Frisky

Frisky, Isabella, Paige, Lisi and Annie

"Little P Von D" riding Frisky

Annie, Frisky, and our teacher, Megan

Iz and Paige hangin' out

Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma Dinosaur!

Grandma Mary (aka GiGi), me, my Mom (Diane), Lisa (my aunt), Grandma Dinosaur

Maybe it is not 'appropriate' to broadcast a woman's age, but OH MY GOODNESS, if I look this good at 90, I will be shouting it from the rooftops!
Grandma Dinosaur is my Mom's Mom, and it is she and my Grandpa Lowe who I stay with when the girls and I go back to St Louis.
I love my Grandma so much, and am SO happy that she was here in Iowa so we could be together to celebrate her day.

Grandma, here is YOUR birthday blog!
* My Grandma was born and raised in Belfast, Ireland
* She has won several dance medals
* She met my Grandpa during WWII
* My Grandma can juggle!
* Her name is Dinah, and my brother Peter is the one who started calling her "Dinosaur"
* This summer she bought herself a new Cadillac, and had it pinstriped!!
* I take fashion cues from my Grandma, and have asked her to will me her wardrobe
* I lived with my grandparents during my college years, and look back on that as a high-light in my life
* My Grandma can knit, and made a beautiful sweater and booties for Isabella when she was born
* Her 1st great-grandchild is 6 weeks older than her youngest grandchild! (She also got a hand knit sweater and booties:)
* My computer-savvy Grandma will be able to read this blog~ How cool is that?!?

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!
I am already looking forward to celebrating next year on 08.08.08

my 1st picture of Baby Shaylee

...and, yes, there will definitely be more pictures to follow...She is SO precious!!!

an amazing night sky

we are official

We have joined the ranks of every other "good, evangelical Christian " family...We now have a photo with us and Dr and Mrs Dobson in our family room.

more photos from alaska

I just got around to scanning in the high-dollar, posed cruise line photos. And if I paid for them, you are going to see them:) Actually, I am glad that we have them~ even though they are all the same pose:) Just a fun reminder of where we were and what we did. Juneau was our first stop. Sitka was probably my favorite stop, but it was SO rainy that day!!! Ketchikan was where we did the float plane ride. What is most significant about that particular photo is the SUNSHINE! Ketchikan is known for its extremely high number of rainy days and annual rainfall over 150/ year! And we got sunshine!!
The last photo is from a formal dinner evening. Isn't that a GREAT pearl necklace??? My cutie husband surprised me with it for Christmas last year. I need more places to wear it:)
It does not seem like a month since we were on the ship. 1 month ago today we set sail! Great adventure, but I like the adventures at home even better...

Lisi's Therapy Session # 127

THE DAY MY MOM AND DAD RAN OVER MY PRINCESS TRICYCLE ON THE WAY TO CHURCH.

Isabella goes it solo

This has been a really busy week, and I am not going to do any of these postings justice, but here it goes...

Isabella's 1st solo ride on Frisky!!! Man, I am SO proud of her!!!

As proud as I was to see her ride with no lead-line, it made me really happy to see her have to work for this. Prior to this experience, her instructor had made sure that Frisky did what she was suppose to do and went where she was suppose to go. With this being all up to Isabella, Frisky got frustrated, and opted to just not move. Isabella had to quickly learn to think about what she wanted the horse to do before she took action. She had to 'steer' with her arms, and direct with her legs. It was a very good experience.

Frisky gets a good pat for being a good horse.

Backyard Adventures

Jordan Creek Family Church hosted its 1st 'vacation Bible school' this past week, and I have to say, it was a great success!
Our family has participated in other VBS programs over the past few years, and they have each exceeded expectations. But as I look back on it, what were my expectations?
I think more of a 'summer camp' experience. And on that note, truly outstanding.
But as I consider what my girls came home talking about and this past week's JCFC Backyard Adventures, this is a vacation Bible school.
I have been more than happy to have Isabella and Lisi coming home singing about Jesus, but this experience left them talking about Moses, Daniel and Joshua.
Now that is cool.
As a matter of fact, and I did hear this 2nd hand, but on Day 1, a Mom asked the kids if any of them knew about Moses.
Loaded question.
Moses is, hand's down, Isabella's favorite person in the Bible.
So she raises her hand, gets called on, and responds with
"Moses led God's people to the Promised Land."
"And I can tell you everything else about him, too."
(Jenn, correct me if I have that wrong. But I think that is pretty much the gist of it.)
Many thanks to all of those who worked really hard to bring this to fruition!!!

Baby Eli...

...is almost a year old!



This post and pix are for those of you who do not get to see enough of Baby McGee since JCFC expanded beyond Josh and Dara's living room:)
Is he not the CUTEST???

Isabella's Inquiry

As I was putting Isabella to bed tonight, and after we had said prayers, she quietly asked me, "Mom, what does it mean to build your life around something that will last?"
wow.
So I did my best to talk to her about how I have chosen to build my life around God, because He will always last. I told her that some people choose to build their life around their job. With that she wrinkled up her nose. (It was hilarious!)
I told her that some Mom's choose to build their life around their kids, but some day even she and Lisi will get married and leave our home for a family of their own (I shed a few tears), but that God will still be in my life. I told her that it makes God so happy when I spend time with her and Lisi and Daddy, and take care of my family, and that they can be a very important part of my life, but not what I choose to build my life around.
And with that, she said, "Mom, I want to build my life around God. At least, I hope that I do build my life around God."
oh my goodness. more tears. And I assured her that by lending a helping hand, reading the Bible, praying and loving God, she is building her life around Him.
And then she said that she knows Frosty won't last, but she hopes he does for alot longer because she loves him.

Before I left her room for the night, I asked her why she asked me the question. She said that Pastor Lori had talked about it and she thought there was a memory verse about not building your life around something that won't last.
Again, thank you Pastor Lori for being the best children's pastor ever~

Baby Shaylee Is HERE!!!

I have no other details other than Baby Shaylee Marie arrived this evening at 6:36.
She is the 1st child of proud parents Gant & Melissa (my cousin and his wife) who live here in Waukee.
Shaylee is also the 4th great-granddaughter for GiGi & TGO (The Great One ~ he named himself that...what can I say???)
I hope to have more details...and a picture!...by tomorrow ~ love having a new babe in the family!!

Happy Birthday, Ems!

Emmie is family to us. I am not sure if I consider her a sister, or a daughter, but family all the same. OK, I'm still young~ she can be my ever-so-slightly younger sister!!!
And today is her 18th birthday!!!
Our family met Emmie when she was just 12 years old. She was a wonderful sitter to Isabella, who was only 7 months old, and then became a tremendous help to me while I was pregnant with Lisi. What would I have done without her???
Over the years, we got to know Emmie, her family, her friends, and then SHE MOVED!! And we have been missing her ever since.
Just the other day, Isabella asked when she would come over to play again~ love that!!!
Emmie has a smile that just warms my heart, and she is one of the most kind people I have ever met.
Ems, we wish you the most HAPPY OF BIRTHDAYS!!! And a great 1st year of college, too!!!

Back to School Shopping

List in hand, and we were ready to SHOP! And how cute is this...Mark wanted to go with us! He said that this experience will only happen once, and he did not want to miss it:) He is SUCH a great Dad:)
(And, no, that is not a puppy in her Kindergarten crate! But, and this should come as no surprise, Isabella did choose folders with kittens and puppies on them.)

This was our conversation this morning:
Isabella: "Mom, when will it be Fall? I am ready to start Kindergarten!"
Me: "Wow. You start Kindergarten 3 weeks from today. I am going to miss you!"
Isabella: "Oh, that is OK, Mom. You can do things like get the house cleaned."